Nadifa Mohamed

The Fortune Men is built on Mahmood Mattan, a Somali seaman put to death in Cardiff in 1952 for a murder he did not commit; his conviction was quashed in 1998, the first the Criminal Cases Review Commission ever overturned. Mohamed keeps him ordinary and irritable rather than making him a symbol, which is the harder choice. Born in Hargeisa, she was brought to Britain at four, and the war made going back impossible. Black Mamba Boy follows her father's journey across Africa as a boy. She was shortlisted for the Booker in 2021.